A tow dolly as contemplated herein is a two-wheel trailer having a tow bar that enables it to be towed behind, e.g., a motor home (or any other vehicle equipped with the necessary hitch). A pair of pivotal ramps are located between the wheels of the tow dolly. The ramps are spaced apart so as to receive the front wheels of a vehicle to be towed. The ramps are pivoted down to an inclined position to allow the front wheels of the vehicle to be driven up the ramps and onto the trailer. The ramps are pivoted up for road travel and the vehicle is secured to the trailer. The front wheels ride the trailer while the rear wheels continue to ride on the road and are dragged along the road surface by connection to the trailer.
The above-described towing system typically applies to vehicles having automatic transmission and front-wheel drive. The rear wheels in such case are idler wheels and simply roll down the roadway in a manner very similar to normal driving of the vehicle. The rear wheels may be backed onto the tow dolly for vehicles having an automatic transmission and rear-wheel drive although such is far less common.
A concern for such a towing system is that the tow dolly wheels have to be spaced apart to permit the total width of the car (between the fenders) to reside between the tow dolly wheels. This adds about two feet to the width of the vehicle. Furthermore, the width between the vehicle wheels varies. A tow dolly made to fit a small vehicle having a narrow width may not accommodate a large vehicle and vice versa. The ramps are not the proper width and the wheels of the tow dolly are not spaced far enough apart or they are undesirably too far apart. Prior to the present invention, this problem has been resolved by producing multiple sized tow dollies to accommodate the different vehicle sizes. In such a narrow market, i.e., primarily motor home owners who desire to tow a vehicle having automatic transmission and front-wheel drive, the added inventory costs to the manufacturers and marketers of tow dollies is extensive. It is accordingly an objective of the present invention to provide a tow dolly design that can serve the towing needs for a range of vehicle width sizes.